Many industrial processes rely on various chemical reactions in a liquid medium to achieve a certain end product. Accordingly, manufacturers and others that perform these industrial processes continually seek improvements to these processes so as to improve their efficiency and provide a cost benefit. By way of example, increasing the collision frequency in chemical reactions occurring in a liquid medium may result in a decrease in processing time, which may lead to an increase in overall production and decrease in operating costs, and/or a decrease in chemical consumption in the liquid medium for achieving the desired result which may also reduce operating costs. Increasing collision frequency via increasing shear rates may also serve to increase surface area of weakly bonded particulate matter and/or flocs. These are only exemplary and, depending on the specific application, many other benefits may be gained by increasing shear rates.
As an example, two types of industrial applications that may benefit from increased diffusion rates are reactions involving catalysts and enzymes.
Current static mixers do not sufficiently utilize available energy to optimize shear rates in order to enhance reactions. For example, static mixers sold under the trademark Kenics do not effectively generate a thin liquid film while maintaining laminar flow and increasing acceleration, such that these mixers do not provide optimized shear rates. Therefore, a need exists for a liquid flow processor which enhances reactions by optimizing shear rates.